NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1
001 – Scorpion Syndrome
Every man has at least one unforgettable experience.
For instance, like that late-night movie I thoughtlessly watched during childhood.
The title of the movie was “Complete Education.”
It was about a man who kidnapped a beautiful woman, and somehow they fell in love.
“I can’t forget it because it was the first adult movie I saw. But there was one thing I never understood.”
Why did the kidnapper and the victim fall in love?
“I later learned that this is called Scorpion Syndrome. It’s a psychological phenomenon where hostages empathize with their captors and even defend and sympathize with them. See, I’m smart, right?”
“It’s Stockholm Syndrome, you idiot! And are you going to untie me or not? Do you know who I am? Hurry up and untie me!”
Thrashed, thrashed, thrashed—
The sight of a woman tied up in chains, struggling in a dimly lit basement was rather amusing.
“This bastard kidnaper! Do you know what will happen if my dad catches you? He’ll lock you up in a mountain villa nobody can find and slice off your toes and fingers one centimeter at a time!”
Anyway, I guess movies are just that—movies.
Love stories between kidnappers and their victims don’t exist in this world.
If anyone disputes that, I’d gladly smack them.
“Well then, Autumn, I’m leaving your meal here, so eat well. And if you need to use the bathroom, there’s a cola bottle over there, so take care of it there. If it’s a big one—”
“YAAAAAH! AAAAAAAH! AAAAAAH!”
“Okay, okay, I got it. Take care of it. I’m leaving now. Someone’s going to freak out if I’m late.”
Kuhhh-!
Once I closed the heavy iron door, I finally let out a sigh of relief.
Yes.
I am the kidnapper of ‘Seoga-eul,’ the only daughter of the Seo Nam Group chairman, considered the wealthiest family in the world.
But how did it come to this?
# # #
The year I turned twenty, the world was basically destroyed.
It’s laughable that this sentence, which feels like the introduction to some novel, actually occurred.
There were no signs or warnings.
One day the sky opened up, and monsters burst out to obliterate everything.
Of course, humans are tenacious survivors.
Just like there are people who survive by rummaging through trash bins even in abject poverty, during the apocalypse, people kept their hope and fought against the monsters.
With supernatural powers and magic.
People called those with such abilities heroes and revered the most active ones as “Supernova.”
In a world where the sun is drowned in darkness, they refused to give up and shone brightly like real supernovas.
So what about me?
I was rummaging through trash bins.
“Oh! A fan!”
I found a slightly broken fan hidden among the junk. The outer surface still looked decent, suggesting that it might work if plugged in.
Moreover, I also spotted a bag of ramen next to it.
“The expiration date is only a year past?”
Finding both a fan and ramen at the same time—I was lucky today.
Wouldn’t it be nice if word got around that I had a fan? Perhaps I would get confessions from pretty girls?
In this world, that seems possible.
“Ying-ing! Big brother is back!”
Dragging my wounded leg back home gave me a little comfort.
To call it a home was a stretch—it was just a makeshift shelter made of scrap metal and wooden planks near a dump. But having a home in a fallen world really was amazing.
“When was the last time I had ramen?”
If I drop a drop of ketchup, a magical ingredient, into this boiling soup, ta-da!
Ketchup ramen complete.
“This is ramen.”
Slurp, slurp—.
In no time at all, I finished the ramen, and a satisfied smile appeared on my face.
But soon after, a grumbling sound resonated in my stomach, dampening my mood.
“I can’t even remember when I last ate enough to be full. Should I really eat emergency rations?”
Peeking into a corner of the house, I saw that my “emergency food” was trembling slightly, having eaten a few strands of the ramen I provided.
It was a blue little thing, round like a baseball.
—Gyu-ing.
“Eh, never mind. Even if I eat it, it won’t fill me up.”
Time for a nap.
Lying down on the somewhat worn but cozy carpet, the starlight seeped through the holes in the ceiling.
If only there weren’t any mosquitoes buzzing in my ears, it would have felt quite romantic, like an Alphons Daudet novel.
Still, I had a fan today.
A thing that creates cool air in the sweltering summer?
Now that’s real superpower and magic.
“I’m really fortunate. I’m full, have a roof over my head, and I even have a fan; I feel like I could belong to the top 30 percent of society. Isn’t that like being the top husband candidate in this world?”
Clunk, clunk, whooooosh—.
“Now that the fan has broken, I’m in the upper 47 percent? Still, if it works out at least half the time, it’s average.”
—Gyu-ing.
Whoosh—.
Suddenly, rain started pouring down without warning, and water began to drip from the ceiling.
“I guess that’s why my injured knee has been aching so much.”
Whenever it looks like it might rain, my left foot, injured in an accident when I was 19, starts to throb, and I often struggle to sleep on days like this.
I suddenly wondered how different my life would have been if I hadn’t gotten hurt that day.
Perhaps I would have been called a supernova too. I’d have been a success as an awakened one, popular with the ladies and all.
Grrgghh—.
I was hungry but couldn’t sleep.
Above all, I felt an intense loneliness.
When was the last time I talked to someone other than myself?
“I wish anyone could be here beside me right now. Preferably a pretty girl. Since I’m wishing, she should have a big chest and a nice personality. Also, she should be rich and a great cook—”
Knock, knock, knock.
While I was making my wish, someone knocked on my door.
—I heard that Hanam-jin lives in this old incinerator.
Hanam-jin?
That’s my name.
I tried to open the door, but a wave of suspicion washed over me.
The voice I heard from outside was that of a slender woman.
Why would a woman come looking for me?
“Who are you?”
—I have something urgent to discuss. Can you open the door?
It was such a clear and melodious voice that even someone asleep would wake up nine out of ten times.
After much deliberation, I succumbed to my instincts.
I couldn’t help but wonder what a person with such a pretty voice would look like.
# # #
With a creak—.
As I opened the shabby iron door, a woman drenched from the rain stood tall, looking at me.
Gasp—. I nearly gasped in awe.
Seeing such a beautiful woman in this destroyed world was a first.
She had black hair and striking red eyes with a cat-like gaze.
There was a long scar on her left eye, but who cares?
“I’m Hanam-jin. What brings you here?”
Could it be that she came looking for me after hearing rumors that I found a fan? Damn! That fan is already broken!
As I floundered, the woman walked right in without taking off her shoes and began to look around.
“Sure, living conditions have worsened compared to the old days, but in your case, it looks pretty extreme. How can you survive in a trash heap like this? The pollution level is dungeon-like—”
She paused, closing her mouth mid-sentence.
Then, she unsheathed a long sword from her waist.
Swish—!
“Monsters…!?”
The reason she drew her sword wasn’t because she was a crazy psychopath, but because she had discovered the slime monster that I had kept in a small cage for my hamster.
—Gyu-ing.
A blue slime the size of a hamster.
My few conversational partners and emergency rations.
“Hanam-jin! Get back! There’s a monster in your house!”
“Wait a minute! Ying-ing is a monster, but it’s a good one!”
“I’m warning you. There are no good monsters in this world. If a monster shows kindness, it’s just trying to deceive people for greater evil. So move aside! I’ll kill it!”
“What? Kill it? Hey, you crazy woman! Have you got cement stuck in your ears? Ying-ing is a good monster!”
“…What!? What ear are you talking about…!?”
The woman narrowed her eyebrows.
A stunning woman frowning was quite attractive in its own right.
In my case, I might prefer this over a smile.
Though that’s not the important part!
“I thought I’d treat you well since you’re pretty. How old are you? Huh? You look younger than me! Walking into someone else’s house without taking off your shoes!”
“…….”
In front of us stood Ying-ing, trembling, and the woman glaring at it. The tension in this cramped home was palpable when the woman’s lips parted slightly.
“Can you prove that it’s a good monster?”
“Prove?”
I took Ying-ing out of its small hamster cage and placed it on my palm.
“See! It’s calm, right?”
“…….”
“If I sing, it even dances. Want to see? If you tie me up and confine me, according to the belly road distant, Buttercup! Yadoran! The birds’ hometown~. No matter how much they insist it’s their land, crocodiles come out, crocodiles!”
—Gyu-ing.
Dum-dum-dum—.
Ying-ing started dancing to the tune, and I felt a surge of joy as I finally had an audience to perform for.
“What do you think?”
“…That’s strange.”
“Monsters are originally strange. Don’t you know that?”
“Not the monster! Your song!”
The woman who had been looking at me and Ying-ing with suspicious eyes sheathed her sword at her waist and flicked her wet hair back. The scent of shampoo was delightful.
“I came all this way because I heard there’s a man who tamed a monster. It seems I really came to the right place. How exactly did you tame it? Monsters never harbor goodwill towards humans. Do you have some secret?”
Did I really tame Ying-ing? I just met it while searching for useful things in the dump.
If she pressed for a secret, there was one thing I could guess.
“Because I sing so well?”
“That’s absolutely not it!”
“Then it’s because I make great ketchup ramen.”
“Ketchup what? Anyway, Hanam-jin, I came here after hearing rumors about you. You said you would do anything for money, right? I have a favor to ask.”
I felt a familiar sense of déjà vu from her gaze as she took me in from head to toe.
This woman was a customer, huh.
“So it wasn’t about the fan after all.”
“What fan?”
“Forget it! I don’t do anything for just money. I value my pride too. You know the saying, without pride, a man is just a corpse?”
“As it happens, I can give you whatever amount you want.”
“To be honest, pride doesn’t fill your stomach. I’ve always been a practical person.”
“…It’s nice that we get along well. By the way, I’m not suspicious, okay? My name is Seoga-eul. I was somewhat famous. Just in case you didn’t know?”
“Seoga-eul?”
Honestly, it was the first time I was speaking with such a beautiful woman, and my mind was spinning. The women around me always gave me cold, chilling looks whenever I tried to talk to them.
The name Seoga-eul popped up in my mixed-up memories.
“Are you the one from ‘Supernova’? A multi-ability holder?”
“That’s right. Supernova. That’s what I was called. Also known as the worst b*tch.”
What the hell is she saying?
She just barged in, pulled out her sword out of nowhere, and now she’s calling herself the worst b*tch?
Is she really a psycho?
But she’s pretty.
Just as I was mulling over that, Seoga-eul asked me,
“Have you ever regretted anything in your life? If you could go back to the past, what would you do?”